Questions, Questions

From the “statements that I pretty much agree with 100% file, so there’s not much else to add to them” file comes Ryan Catbird’s rumination on the “all music should be free” model: “I still think the more important question is: ‘What if an artist that hasn’t already built a career on the label system released their work directly, gave it away for free, retained their rights, etc. Would it matter?’ The answer, sadly, to that one is “no, it doesn’t matter.” Myriad small unheard-of bands are out there posting their albums for free every day, but there’s still no good way for them to get heard. For all the chatter about how new technology/Music 2.0/viral marketing etc. has the power to ‘break’ new artists, there are precious few examples of this actually occurring.” A related thought that’s probably an extension of my “future of Coachella” post : Is the push for free recorded music going to result in mass music culture turning into something that’s even more fossilized than classic-rock station playlists, which at least add one or two new artists to their rotation every year? [F.U. & The Blog You Rode In On]